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Shiurim & Adult Education
THOUGHTS ON BEREISHIT BY RABBI WILKINSON
The importance of work
In Parshat Bereishit, the Torah narrates creation (Ch.1), the detailed creation of Gan Eden, man and woman (Ch.2), the first sin and its aftermath (Ch.3), the first murder (Ch.4), the generations from Adam to Noach (Ch.5), and the sinful ways of mankind and the decision of G-d to destroy man (6:1-8).
After the first sin, when Adam and Isha (wife) ate the fruit from the forbidden tree, G-d cursed each one of them (and the male and female genders for all time) and it is then, strangely, that Adam named his wife “Chava, for she had become the mother of all living” (3:20). Though he might have named her “the mother of death,” for her sin brought mortality to the world, with compassion and forgiveness, Adam named her the mother of life.
What does her name, Chava, represent, and why is she known as the mother of all living, but Adam is not named as ‘the father of all living’?
The Ohr Ha’Chaim ha’Kadosh explains:
“Since it was decreed upon her that she would bear children in pain, for this reason Adam called her Chava, to indicate that she was the mother of all living. Since she would have to now bear the suffering of pregnancy and childbirth, it is fitting to attribute to her, and not to Adam, the title ‘mother of all living.’ “
R’ Yitzchok Zilberstein, shlita, teaches a powerful lesson from this: “An act is attributed to a person only if he encountered difficulties in its execution. If a person did not suffer for it, he does not merit it, even if he has a direct connection to that act. Even if he is the father who brought the child into the world. Because only Chava was cursed with the suffering entailed in bearing children, and not Adam, she was the one who merited the title of ‘the mother of all living’”.
One who works, even if, or particularly when, that work is difficult, and the fruits of the womb (proverbially and literally) are born with pain and suffering, will be rewarded with the benefit of that work. One who does not exert himself, will reap no reward.
As it says in Pirkei Avot: “according to the effort is the reward”. The Bartenura explains “According to the effort is the reward: According to the amount of exertion that one bears and suffers for Torah learning and doing mitzvot, so his reward will be great”.
Frequently the yetzer harah seeks to convince us that the easy way out is the preferred way in life. Sleep a bit more, it’s so cold out in the winter, why get up early to serve your Creator? Sleep in in the summer, he says, the lazy days of summer holidays are here, why rush to complete your tasks today? We live in a “me generation,” where many feel they deserve everything and hard work is shunned in favour of the easy way out.
Yet this is not the Torah perspective. Upon creation of Adam, the Torah tells us: “And Hashem Elokim took the man, and he placed him in Gan Eden, to work it and to guard it” (Bereishit 2:15).
R’ Aharon Lichtenstein zt’l teaches, “Man does not simply exist as a biological being enjoying the world, but rather as a functional being who contributes, creates and works. The need for man to work is not part of the curse subsequent to the first sin; man was originally placed in the Garden in order to cultivate it. The curse was that man would have to battle with an unwilling earth. But the fact that one needs to work at all is part of the primeval, primordial order, irrespective of any element of sin. This had been intended from the beginning. Simply put, this is indeed a perfect order, provided that man does his part…”
“Both ’to work it’ and ‘to guard it’ּ are designed to maintain the world at its present level: passively guarding against damage and actively working in order to replenish. We need to work so that the natural processes repeat themselves; if you do not contribute your share, the seasons come and go, but nature does not replenish itself” (By His Light, Characters & Values in the Service of G-d, p.9).
In whatever the task at hand, and whatever life brings our way; whatever our job over the long term and our duty at the moment, one must exert himself, to ensure that the job is done, and done well. From one’s profession to Torah learning; from baking a cake to building a sukkah; from completing our homework at school to writing a PhD thesis – whatever the work, it must be done with maximum effort and exertion. For only one who suffers for that work will be rewarded and have the work attributed to them.
Shabbat shalom
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